Monday, October 22, 2012

So this is my last post about Portland. Woo-Hoo! I had planned on writing this post earlier but I just didn't get around to it. Oh well. At least I am writing the post now instead of waiting until a couple months from now. haha.

So my hubby's work conference got over the day before, but he still had a meeting to go to. We were not sure how long his meeting was going to be. We thought maybe it would be from 8 am - 2 pm but he didn't get out of his meeting until 5 pm. We had planned on going to the Portland Art Museum together but I ended up going with just my son. That was a riot. Ha!

Our flight was leaving at 11:30 pm that day so we had to check out of the hotel. In the morning, I just had breakfast, got ready, packed, and let Timmy take a short nap. Our check-out time at the hotel was 12 pm so I didn't check out until then. I decided to take it easy since I wouldn't have a hotel room to come back to. Once I checked out, I gave our luggage to the people at the front desk and then I was off to explore.

I took the train to get to the Portland Art Museum. The Museum was fairly easy to find. My son and I looked around at most of the Museum. It was definitely awkward for me to take him there. He didn't want to sit in his stroller for the whole time so I had to let him out in order to keep him happy. Once I let him out of his stroller, he was all over the place. It is definitely hard to keep up with both him and the stroller. Ha! On top of him being out of the stroller, he was pretty loud and all his noises echoed in the museum. I just tried to go quickly through the museum and point out things in the paintings to him. I really enjoyed seeing american, European, and paintings from artists in the West. After we got done looking at everything, I got a hot chocolate to drink while Timmy ran around outside.

After we hung out at the museum, I started to make my way back to the hotel in order to meet up with the hubby. I had to take a bus back so I waited a while at the bus stop. Once I got near the hotel, I did a little shopping since my hubby wasn't quite done with his meeting. I bought myself a pair of running shoes and a shirt. It was well deserved. Haha.

My hubby finally got done with his meeting and we met up at the hotel. We decided to eat at the restaurant connected to the hotel. The food was pretty good but the meal was kinda crazy since the wee one was acting up. I was definitely glad once the dinner was done. After that, we made our way to the airport. Instead of taking a taxi, we decided to take the train since it was cheap.

As soon as we got checked in and through security, I lowered Timmy's stroller to the flat position in order for him to sleep. He ended up sleeping for the next two hours until we got on the plane. Tom also slept for a little bit before we boarded. I just read my kindle and made sure we didn't miss the plane.

Once we boarded the plane, Timmy kept on sleeping. I might have slept for a little bit but not much. For me, it is very hard to sleep on planes. I was glad once we finally arrived and I hope to never have to take a red-eye flight again. But, the flight wasn't nearly as bad as having to drive the 3.5 hours back home from the airport. Tom and I switched off on driving back home. At one point, we stopped to rest for a little but then I decided to just get back on the road and keep driving. We finally made it back home and slept a ton. It took me a couple of days to feel rested.

All in all, we had a great time in Portland, Oregon. I really enjoyed exploring it and I cannot wait until I get to explore the next city we visit!!

Friday, October 19, 2012

So for my third day in Portland, the plan was to go to the International Rose Garden and the Oregon Museum of Science and Industry. Since I was using public transportation to get around Portland, I would usually look up what bus or train to take in order to get where I was going. That day, I didn't look up exactly where I was going. I knew that it was in the Washington Park area but I wasn't sure how far away it was going to be. Anyways, I took a train to Washington Park and then I started to walk around trying to find the Rose Garden. Well, I ended up having to walk 1.5 miles in order to get to the Rose Garden. ha-ha I had to walk beside a road but I usually walked on the road since my stroller is not all-terrain. Luckily, there were not many cars passing by.

Road to the Rose Garden

Timmy was pretty good on the walk to the Garden. It was a bit cold on the walk over but it was a very beautiful area to walk through.

Timmy and I took a break to take a picture. I had to keep my hood on because it was cold and windy. Timmy doesn't really like hats or hoods on his head so he took his hood off. Silly baby :)

The picture below is just another view of the scenery around the road.

Before I got to the Rose Garden, I did not think about the roses still being in bloom or not since it was the beginning of October. Luckily, the roses were all in bloom and the Gardens were beautiful! The International Rose Garden also happened to be free. It was a win-win situation.

Timmy really enjoyed getting out of the stroller after our long walk and running around like a silly-head.

Looking at all of these roses definitely made me want to plant roses. Maybe some day I will. Until that time, I will just have to live vicariously through my sister-in-law Erika.

I really had a lot of fun looking at all the roses and taking pictures of them. Their were so many different kinds of roses to see so that it why I have like a gazillion photos of roses.

After we went to the International Rose Garden, we went to a great playground that was only a little bit away from the Garden. Timmy had a lot of fun playing there and there were lots of other kids there.

After we left the playground, I had to go back to the hotel in order to meet up with my husband. He was going to be done with his conference for the day around lunchtime and we had plans to go to another museum. I tried to look for a bus/train in order to get back to the hotel but I didn't feel like waiting for a bus. I thought that maybe I could walk and catch a bus faster. Instead, I ended up walking for like 45 minutes and I am guessing that I walked at least 2 miles or more. Once I got back into the city, I met up with my husband to eat lunch at Subway. We then caught a bus to go to the Oregon Museum of Science and Industry. We walked along the river to get to the Museum.

The Museum was kinda cool. It had a great area for younger kids. It had a bunch of different things for Timmy to do. We even got Timmy to wear a chipmunk costume.

They also had a water play area for Timmy. He wore a vest to keep his clothes dry but he still got his clothes wet. Even though he did get wet, he still had a lot of fun playing in the water.

Their was also a grocery area with tons of play food. There was a baby area, a sand pit, an art area, and a slide to play on. Timmy definitely enjoyed the kids area and we liked it too.

After we were done playing in the kids area, we went through the rest of the museum. Throughout the museum, they had a bunch of areas where brain teasers were set up. The brain teasers were really interesting and I thought they were a lot of fun to do. One area of the museum was an exhibit about race. I was not a big fan of it. Another area was called Grossology and it was all about gross stuff happening in your body. I thought it was okay but I could see how other people wouldn't like it.

Timmy eventually feel asleep at the museum after we got done playing in the kids area.

I would mostly say that we liked the Oregon Museum of Science and Industry because they had a lot of brain teasers, hands- on stuff, and a great kid areas. But, I was not a fan of their exhibits.

After the museum, we grabbed a quick dinner and spent the rest of the night at the hotel.

Wednesday, October 17, 2012

For Day Two, my plan was to visit the Portland Children's Museum. It seemed like a cool place to visit. I had also never taken my son to a children's museum so I thought it would be fun to see what that was all about. Like yesterday, I had to take a train to get there since it was in the same area as the Zoo.

It was a little windy and cold when we went over there. I had to take my stroller to get to the museum. Once I got into the museum, I was able to park my stroller in a room there so that Timmy could wander about.

Once we got there, I saw that they were having Story Time in a few minutes. We quickly made our way back to the tree house area where the story was going to be read. The museum worker read quite a few stories about fall and such. The books were all very interesting and it was pretty good.

After story time was over, we made our way over to the 'Dig Pit'. In the 'Dig Pit', they had some tire scraps that the kids could dig into. They also had some trucks in there to play with.

Timmy liked playing with some big and small shovels. He also played with some buckets there.

Another area that Timmy enjoyed playing at was the grocery area. They had some shopping carts to take your stuff around in. They had also tons of play food, plates, cups, utensils, etc. There was even an area where you could check out with your play food. Timmy enjoyed picking up all the kitchen stuff and just running around with them. He also enjoyed pushing the shopping cart.

They also had another area which was the construction zone. They had cute little work vests to work. Timmy liked to pick up some wood sticks there.

Timmy was able to put on a tool belt there.

Timmy also got to try on a construction hat which was very cute.

After the construction zone area, we went to an area where there was a train table along with a bus and ambulance. The train table was very interesting. None of the train tracks were stuck down so kids were able to move the tracks anywhere. Moving the tracks could be great for older kids but I generally like for the tracks to be stuck down.

Timmy played with the trains for a little bit.

After the train tracks, Timmy played in a bus. He enjoyed pretending to drive the bus.

The children's museum was pretty interesting. It had plenty of areas beside the ones that I took pictures in. It also had a water area which was closed for the time. There was a baby area, a animal vet area, a clay area, a theater area, and plenty of other stuff. I thought the museum would be better for older kids. Timmy enjoyed playing with things but I definitely didn't enjoy having to pay for him. Ha!

Unfortunately, the museum's cafe area was undergoing renovations so there wasn't anywhere to eat there. The only other place close by to eat at was the Zoo. Timmy and I had lunch again at the zoo. We then made our way back to the Hotel. Timmy took an afternoon nap. He slept longer than the day before but he definitely cried in the middle of his nap. I decided to let him cry for a little bit because he needed the sleep.

After his nap, we walked to a nearby mall in order to get frozen yogurt. Vermont only has one frozen yogurt store here that I know of and it is no good. I definitely enjoyed the frozen yogurt in Portland. After we went there, we walked over to Powell's Books. The bookstore was very large and pretty cool. I picked up some books for Timmy there.

After Powell's Books, Timmy and I made our way back to the hotel in order to meet up with Tom for a little bit. Tom had to go to a meeting that night so I ordered room service for myself. Timmy went to bed pretty early and then I went to bed later on after him.